78 OF THE OTHER ORDERS 



tuberosa of the sandy fields of the southern and mid- 

 dle states bears, in August, a profusion of bright orange 

 colored flowers, alternate leaves, tuberous roots, and 

 is destitute of milky sap. 



In botanizing in the middle and southern states you 

 will probably meet, occasionally, with foetid, twining 

 plants producing umbels of brown or greenish flowers, 

 nearly resembling those of Asclepias, but without awns 

 in the lepanthium or nectary ; these will belong, prob- 

 ably, to the genus Gonolobus or Cynanchum. They 

 likewise produce follicles, and comose seeds, and 

 strictly belong to the Asclepiadeje. 



Late in autumn, when few other flowers are visible, 

 you will still meet in wet places with a set of very rich 

 blue-flowered plants of a bitter taste, belonging to the 

 second order of Pentandria, of the genus Gen- 

 tiana or Gentian, a bitter medicinal drug, and the 

 type of a natural family of similar name. The calyx 

 is 4 or 5-parted ; the corolla partly campanulate, 

 but tubular at the base, having a 4 or 5-cleft border, 

 with its edge, in some species, fringed, and, though 

 commonly expanding, sometimes almost shut up, as 

 in our common G. saponaria, where the corolla is so 

 closed as to look like a barrel. The stamina are in- 

 cluded or inclosed. The stigmas 2. The capsule l- 

 celled, 2-valved, containing very many minute seeds 

 attached to 2 longitudinal receptacles. 



To the same natural family Gentianje, but with- 

 out much reason placed in the first order of Pentan- 

 dria, appertains the American Centaury (Sabbatia), 

 the common and beautiful ornament of our open, 

 swampy, natural meadows and saline marshes, with 

 pink red or white flowers, having a particolored star 

 in the centre. According to the species, the calyx 

 as well as the corolla is 5 to 12-parted, the latter 

 quite open or rotate, and so readily distinguished 



